Cops raid home of couple who raised cash for homeless man
FLORENCE, N.J. — Police raided a New Jersey couple’s home and hauled away a new BMW on Thursday after a homeless man accused them of helping themselves to some of the $400,000 in online donations they supposedly raised to help him start a new life.
Citing “enormous public interest” in the case, county prosecutor Scott Coffina confirmed that Mark D’Amico and Katelyn McClure are under investigation, though no charges have been filed.
It was the latest twist in a onetime feel-good story about Johnny Bobbitt, who spent his last $20 to buy gas for McClure when she became stranded on a highway in Philadelphia last year, and the couple who found 14,000 people online who were so touched by his kindness that they donated to a GoFundMe page.
Police armed with a search warrant left the couple’s home in Florence, about 30 miles northeast of Philadelphia, with bags and boxes of material and the BMW, according to news outlets at the scene when the raid occurred. Bobbitt has questioned where they got the money for the new car. They have said they used their own money.
The couple have previously denied any wrongdoing.
In a lawsuit Bobbit filed against the couple, he says they used the account as a “personal piggy bank” to “fund a lifestyle they could not otherwise afford.”
A judge presiding over Bobbitt’s lawsuit ordered the couple to give sworn statements Monday on the status of the money raised, as well as to turn over documents. Their attorney has indicated they will claim their constitutional right not to have to testify.